We don’t quite get it.

There has been some videos on the news of people that live by hospitals coming out to their balconies at shift change time (which is usually 7am or 7pm) and clapping and cheering for the doctors and nurses and other health care staff that are working so hard right now helping all the patients with COVID 19. It is very touching and it is great that the people living by the hospitals show support for them.

Our neighbor across the street has apparently also seen these videos and is trying to get a neighborhood nightly ritual going. They have been posting on FB and texts to the neighborhood asking to have people come out at 7pm every night and clap for one minute for the health care workers. Might I point out that there are no actual health care workers.

The first time they did it, we were not aware of what they were doing. Ryan and Matthew were playing catch in the street by the front yard. All of the sudden their whole Stutzman family came out and without saying a word start clapping and cheering. Ryan and Matthew didn’t know what they were doing and thought they were clapping at them for some reason. They stopped and looked at them and then after the minute ended without a word they all turned around and went back in their house.

The next night we got a text from a different neighbor explaining what was going on and said that it was going to be something that happened every night at 7pm. We forgot and missed it that night.

Tonight we set an alarm because we got more text invites and didn’t want to be the stick in the mudds. So at 6:59 I dragged the kids to the front porch and told them we were going to clap for 1 minute for all the healthcare workers. At 7 o’clock sharp the Stutzman family came out and started clapping…our family and one other family were the only other families I could see. We all clapped for a minute then at 7:01 the Stutzman family stopped and walked back into their house. The entire time we were clapping my kids repeatedly asked me questions like, “Why are we doing this?” “When are the doctors coming?” “Why are we clapping if no one is here?” “Can the doctors and nurses see us and we just don’t know?”

It was a little weird. Again, if they were actual people to clap for I would be all for it…but since there isn’t…I think it is strange for people to come out on the porch and clap for a minute with out any converstation and then go back inside. At least say hi and wave or something.

We might be busy at 7pm most nights.